Check out this 5,000-year-old fingerprint!
- Published
The print was left by a potter pressing a finger into wet clay
Archaeologists have found a fingerprint which they think could be a whopping 5,000 years old!
The discovery was made at the Ness of Brodgar archaeological site in Orkney where the print was spotted on a piece of a clay vessel believed to have been made by a potter many years ago.
Special imaging technology known as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) was used to reveal the fingerprint left after the potter pressed a finger into wet clay.
Reflectance Transformation Imaging, or RTI is a photographic method using computers. It captures an object's shape and colour to reveal information that can't be seen through normal examination techniques.
The process involves multiple photographs being taken of a subject, each with a different controlled light source.
These are combined using special computer software to create a highly detailed model of the object that can be lit from all angles and closely examined on screen.
The fingerprint was found by ceramics specialist Roy Towers, who was examining a fragment of pottery from a collection of lots of different clay pieces that had been recovered from the site.
RTI work confirmed and recorded what is now the only fingerprint that has been found so far at the Ness of Brodgar.
However, ancient fingerprints aren't uncommon and research has been carried out into them for a number of years.
Archaeologists hope analysis of the Ness of Brodgar fingerprint will reveal the gender and age of the potter.
"Working on such a high-status site as the Ness of Brodgar, with its beautiful buildings and stunning range of artefacts, it can be all too easy to forget about the people behind this incredible complex," said excavation director Nick Card.
"But this discovery really does bring these people back into focus.
"Although finding the fingerprint impression won't hugely impact our work, it does give us a highly personal, poignant connection to the people of Neolithic Orkney, 5,000 years ago."
- Published19 May 2022
- Published11 February 2021
- Published23 April 2016
